Chapter 18

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Yoo Chun Young was handsome, smart, enjoyed tricky puzzles, and athletic. Eun Hyung once told me that he was even good at fighting. Well, he was the friend of the male protagonist, so it could be possible.

He was, however, the heir of a conglomerate instead of a minor enterpriser; in addition, he’s also a trending model…

A novel was indeed a novel. I laughed loudly while turning my chair around. I had thought about the last 3 years that the one who wrote this novel would be about fifteen and an 8th grader in school.

I bet that person would be a girl too. Why? In general, a novel with a pretty girl was written by a guy, but when a novel was written with many handsome boys then a woman must have written it.

What a shrewd reasoning!

I was satisfied enough to nod and turn off the computer to remove the evidence. Then I stood up to wash my face. Since Yoo Chun Young said he would come to my house, it would not be a flummery.

I walked across the silent living room to go to the bathroom. Under the orange light, a face with dark eye bags appeared. I could not help but push my face in front of the mirror before washing it up.

The high-ponytailed girl I saw within the reflection on the mirror was light brown. It was my natural hair color but ever since I came into this world, my hair turned lighter to a dyed brown shade. This world also had an influence on me for sure.

My skin tone also got brighter than before, which was quite a fortunate thing. Among the Four Heavenly Kings, Eun Jiho and Yoo Chun Young were almost pale as if they all hailed from a Caucasian descent. Therefore, when standing next to them, I was always concerned about my skin tone. I looked at my face thoroughly with half-closed eyes.

A normal straight nose with small and long eyes, all my freckles were all gone too. Not to mention, my lips looked just as it is, normal.

I bit my lips, twisted my nose tip, opened and closed my eyes, and then I left the mirror alone.

Encountering Ban Yeo Ryung and the Four Heavenly Kings every day made it difficult for me to figure out whether a person looked pretty or not.

If someone asked me to compare myself with Ban Yeo Ryung, I would not hesitate to say, ‘I am a squid, a fresh one.’ When comparing to other ordinary people, however, I did not think that bad of them.

Hmm. I wiped out my dripping face with a towel and left the bathroom.

Then I sat down on the couch inside the dim living room and waited for Yoo Chun Young while watching the early sunrise. As I thought about him, I thought of the reason why he asked me not to turn on the computer; it was such a simple reason too.

If I got to know that he was a famous person appearing at the internet trending topics, I would keep my distance away from him. I could act like that without being aware.

Although I was inside a novel where all the beauty, wealth, and capabilities were centralized on the five people, I had in mind that this was my reality now. Still, I could not help myself from feeling a sense of huge distance from them. Everyone would feel the same if they heard that the boy who laughed and hanged around with them while tangling each other’s hairs was the heir of a rich family.

The one who reacted the most sensitively to me expressing my distance was Yoo Chun Young. He usually kept his feelings to himself but became extremely sensitive to me when I distanced myself from him. His sensitivity about my mood swings was equivalent to that of Ban Yeo Ryung.

This was the reason why I fought with Yoo Chun Young. Ban Yeo Ryung understood that there existed a space between us. She might have known I was once about to abandon her but had a hard time refusing to do so in the end.

Yoo Chun Young, however, did not accept having a distance between us.

It was 3 years ago when we first met and at that time, I was naïve enough to believe that we could become normal friends. He would, therefore, not understand why I was putting a distance with him now.

While watching the swaying dawn light over the terrace, I had my hands around my legs above the couch. Then my thoughts proceeded to immerse me as I did nothing in my lonesome.

* * *

Now I asked myself, do I remember the first time I saw Yoo Chun Young? He was the first man I encountered among the Four Heavenly Kings.

The dazzling morning sunlight shed his chiseled forehead, and he dropped his gaze at me with his dark blue eyes.

How shocked I was to confront the blue eyes! While looking at his back as he walked away, I wondered if the blue eyes were my illusion or not. Now that I thought of it, our first encounter was quite impressive.

Woo Jooin was always smiling, friendly, and sociable; everyone in the class loved him. To be honest, Woo Jooin was the last I befriended with, but we got close surprisingly fast. Two days after we spoke to each other, he started calling me ‘mom’ already. Then he jumped towards me and threw himself in my arms, which made me hard to deny the nickname he gave me.

Kwon Eun Hyung always had a generous look and was also the class president, so I had many chances to talk with him – For instance, when Kwon Eun Hyung let me go to the nurse’s office, I had to speak with him first… Later when he stood at my side after that debacle with Baek Yeo Min, I personally had a good feeling about him.

Before that situation, I kind of avoided him. It was because of him having a fancy appearance such as red hair and green-gray eyes; furthermore, he showed his affection to Ban Yeo Ryung too much. However, there was no reason to elude him at some point. He was just one of my classmates, so should I be so desperate to become awkward with him?

Besides, as I saw how this novel went on, the Four Heavenly Kings would definitely get closer with Ban Yeo Ryung, and she would never let me go. If that was the case then wouldn’t it be okay to become good friends with her since I would have to see them anyway?

In other words, as I gave up my will of an ordinary life, having a conversation with Kwon Eun Hyung no longer felt uncomfortable.

Once on a humid day in June, the month of our field day, Kwon Eun Hyung’s seat was right in front of Ban Yeo Ryung’s and diagonally from mine.

Kwon Eun Hyung, Ban Yeo Ryung, and I began to talk very much during the break time. That was when I found some of his unforeseen characteristics. It was something like this.

“I got into trouble yesterday. My mom scolded me for not cleaning up the leftover fruits.”

“That’s because of the fruit flies.”

“…”

“Try to cover the trashcan lid tightly. Bugs breed faster in summer, so throw away the trash immediately and cover the lids tightly.”

I thought with a frowny face. Was he a housewife or what? He was only a fourteen-year-old boy.

It was later that I realized Kwon Eun Hyung’s mother passed away when he was five, so he took care of all the house works by himself. That was why he often talked and behaved like a mother. Especially when he warned Eun Jiho and Yoo Chun Young about their game addiction, it was obvious.

Kwon Eun Hyung’s father was a driver at Yoo Chun Young’s house; therefore, they knew everything about each other.

Kwon Eun Hyung spoke about how sweet and nice Yoo Chun Young was; however, I could hardly get closer with Yoo Chun Young. Forget about getting closer, we never talked to each other as well, now even a word. Maybe his first impression was too strong or maybe it was because of his brusque personality.

In fact, none of the girls in the class spoke with Yoo Chun Young around that time. He sat at the third row next to the window. Whenever I felt too hot during the class, I would turn around to look at him. Then the cold air around him would seem to blow towards me like an AC.

He was active in the physical education class and did well on presentations, but for me, he did not feel like a human being. Maybe because of his freezingly pale face or his deep blue eyes?

It was quite weird when I had come to think of it. However, it was Yoo Chun Young, who approached me first.